LABOUR MSP Helen Eadie is being treated for cancer, the party has said.

The Cowdenbeath MSP is in a hospice at Queen Margaret Hospital, Dunfermline following her diagnosis on October 24.

Mrs Eadie, 66, who has been an MSP since the Scottish Parliament's inception, was campaigning for her newly elected Labour colleague Cara Hilton in the Dunfermline by-election in the days before her diagnosis.

She is said to be conducting her parliamentary business from the hospital bed and the MSP's staff will keep her office running while she receives treatment.

Mrs Eadie's son-in-law Gavin Yates, a Fife councillor, told The Courier newspaper: "Helen is receiving treatment in hospital for cancer. The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this time."